http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LsSppYxSHk
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank. " - Barack Obama Campaign Promise - October 27, 2007>
What a flagrant liar. Apologists, you may now commence your work.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To start out, we have to ask which war? I believe Obama was referring to Iraq and not Afghanistan. In Iraq we are already committed to an exit plan, which the UN had already imposed on GWB. So no lie there in a Iraq war Obama opposed before it began.
The Obama pledge in Afghanistan was quite different, and only after Obama presidency had committed more ground troops to Afghanistan did we learn how FUBARed the GWB&co strategy had left Afghanistan. As we learned that 85% of Afghanistan was under Taliban control while GWB was clueless about what a fuckup he was.
In short, its going to be far harder to win in Afghanistan now than when we initially invaded in 2002. And now Obama is wrestling about how to fix Afghanistan, and unhappy with any options given to him by his staff of Generals. But he will soon have to get off the pot or shit, and take his plan to the American people.
After that, we have to learn to take campaign promises with a grain of salt.
Eisenhower promised to win in Korea and at best got an uneasy Mexican standoff that still exists today. No win by any stretch of the imagination.
Nixon promised us a Vietnamese victory by the end of his first term. He did not deliver.
In his second term he adopted the McGovern peace plan, relabeled it peace with honor,
so we could pretend we won after losing.
And who can ever forget, "read my lips, no new taxes."
Reality is a bitch.